Quirky App Of The Day: Crash Dummy Is No Dummy As A Superhero

Crash Dummy ($2.99) by Immanitas Entertainment GmbH is a game that incorporates a new type of unsung hero. When I think of a superhero, I think of either the typical, bulging muscles and a secret identity hero like in comic books, or I think of the scrawny coming-of-age antihero that you see in games like Horn. This superhero isn’t typical in the sense that he’s usually smashing himself senseless into walls. This hero is a crash dummy. Yes, I mean the typical crash test dummy who makes sure that our cars don’t kill us in unexpected ways when we have a wreck.

This crash dummy is special. His name is Cid, and he spends his days crashing himself into random walls while testing out car safety. It’s not exactly his dream job. The day the professor’s daughter is kidnapped by the evil D-Troit is the day that Cid’s life changes forever. He’s the only one who can save her.

Through some upgrades and weaponry, Cid battles his way down through thugs and robots. He has a bazooka that fires rubber bullets, some punching skills, and panic mode to get him through his opponent’s defenses. Thanks to his special job as a crash dummy, Cid can also bash himself into barriers to gain entrance into rooms. It’s not exactly a method that I would recommend to anyone else.

The controls are a little different. While you have your basic punch and jump buttons, there’s a directional pad that’s almost invisible on the left side. It’s not positioned as low on the screen as I’m used to, so it takes some getting used to.

You can swipe across the screen to slam Cid into walls. If you need to abruptly stop him from slamming into something, the jump button will do the trick. While there are more things that you control such as his bazooka and the panic mode, I’ll let the game tutorial explain those.

Does Crash Dummy sound familiar? Well, it might. This game originally started out as a PC and console game. If anyone has played these other versions, go ahead and leave your comments about how different or similar these version are.